Getting marijuana and hash in the heart of Bangalore is as easy as, say, a pirated CD

Bangalore might still not be Amsterdam, but drugs, especially of the garden variety, seem to be readily available in the heart of the city. You ask for it and you get it. That simple. And if you are a woman, chances are you will get premium stuff, faster and cheaper. We went to Church Street, where posing as ad professionals, we acted as though we were dying for a smoke, presumably to spice up a bash we were to attend later in the night. And, boy, did we get a response!

Between 11:30 pm and 1:30 am, we were approached by three different groups who were ready to give us whatever drugs we wanted. All the time, there was a group of policemen who were more than aware of what was going on. They saw us talking to various people, they saw us repeatedly crossing the lanes, but they did not stop us even once. Nor did they come to the darker lane to see what we or the others were up to. This just proves that the law enforcers are very much hand-in-glove with the law breakers.

11:30 PM

After having dinner, we came out of a very popular restaurant on Church Street. A lot of youngsters were gathered around their SUVs and bikes. We stood close to them and started talking loudly to each other, pretending we were desperate for some ‘stuff’. That did the trick. The guys began showing interest in us. Soon, we were approached by a well-built man who introduced himself as Rajiv (name changed), a techie who has been working in the city for the past five years. “Do you girls want to join us?” he asked. We excused ourselves by saying that we were waiting for someone.

But he was persistent. “Are you looking for something,” he queried. Seizing the opportunity, we said yes, we were looking for some weed and asked him if there was anyway we could get some. He was not even surprised. In fact, he asked us to come with him. When we refused, he said, “Fine, I will get it for you people. But for that you will have to wait here for sometime. Otherwise, you will have to come with us, I will take you to the person who gives it to me.” We opted for the former.

12:05 AM

Rajiv (striped T-Shirt), a techie, offers to get ‘stuff’ to our reporters on Church Street; ‘quality’ dope is what they got

Soon, another guy who looked like a college student approached us and said, “Are you girls looking for some weed? If you are, then I can provide you some.” We enthusiastically said yes. “You wait here till I finish my dinner, then my friend and I will get you some weed. It will take about 40 minutes,” he said. We said all right and after he left we waited for other prospective peddlers. But then we realised that we were very conspicuous, standing out in the open like that, so we decided to go to the nearby Rest House Road. There we spotted a number of youngsters sitting on the stairs of a roadside shopping complex and smoking.

12.40 AM

We were standing in the dark when one man, completely inebriated, walked past us, stopped, looked at us, gave a grin and went away. Then in a split second, he came back and asked us, “Do you girls want something? Do you want some stuff?” To which we replied yes. He was soon joined by two others, one who has a company in Cox Town and another who acts in Kannada serials. Asking his friends to give us company, he went to a side lane. We persuaded him to tell us from where he got the stuff, but he refused to disclose the exact location. After a few minutes, he came back with a small paper pouch, which had weed in it, neatly wrapped. The three chaps told us that if we wanted more, we could come and meet them at the same spot the next day.

1.15 AM

The college student came back and asked, “Have you girls got the thing, or you are still looking for it?” It was evident that he had discussed money with his friend for he said, “Just give us 20 minutes and we will get you ganja but you will have to pay us.” We said yes, but we did not wait for them to return because it was getting very late. To linger around anymore would be to invite serious trouble. We headed home.